TORONTO, August 31, 2024 – Chiefswood Stables’ homebred Piper’s Factor fended off Swift Delivery, co-owned by NFL star Travis Kelce, to win the $125,000 Toronto Cup Stakes Presented by Crown Royal, Saturday at Woodbine.

Arriving at the one-mile Toronto Cup off a fourth in the Plate Trial on July 24, Piper’s Factor earned his first stakes success in the race for 3-year-olds that was contested over a yielding E.P. Taylor turf.

Babbo and Western Whirl, a stablemate of Piper’s Factor, both got away sharply and proceeded to duel for the early advantage with the former eventually taking a short lead through an opening quarter in :23.61. Dresden Row, riding a three-race win streak, sat third, while Sofia Vives, aboard Piper’s Factor, settled the bay colt into fourth.

On top by a length after a half in :47.02, Babbo was confronted by a hard charging Piper’s Factor into the turn for home, as Dresden Row and Swift Delivery also began to gather momentum.

Piper’s Factor, who had driven clear in early stretch, held a 1 ½-length advantage at the stretch call. Swift Delivery, the even-money-choice, looked to reel in the leader, but to no avail. The margin of victory was 1 ¾ lengths. Dresden Row was third, followed by Babbo, Western Whirl and Tunechi.

The final time was 1:36.09.

It was an impressive outing for the Katerina Vassilieva trainee who was competing on the turf for the first time in his career.

“I knew he was going to sit right behind the speed,” said Vives. “We hoped he took to the turf, and he did just that. At the quarter pole, I saw the horse in front of me start to get a little tired, and I tried to get first run on everybody, and he was game down the lane to get to the wire first. He deserved this one and he proved today that he was a bear.”

Works leading up to the race gave Vassilieva reason for optimism.

“We had tried working him on the turf a few weeks ago, and it was a little bit off and yielding like it is today,” said the graded stakes winning conditioner. “He worked really well over it, so that gave us a lot of confidence. He’s got some breeding that would tell us he has an affinity for turf, so we were going into it with a little bit of confidence.

A son of The Factor-Pipers Future, Piper’s Factor launched his career last July at Woodbine. He broke his maiden next time out at the Toronto oval , a two-length score at 1 1/16 miles on the all-weather track on September 10.

Now 3-2-0 from 10 starts, Piper’s Factor returned $16.60 for the Toronto Cup win.

Chris Lomon, Woodbine

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